Celtics go to great pains

Hurtin’ Pierce, Allen able to put aside discomforts

Credit: Matthew West

DANGEROUS GAME: Paul Pierce pulls his hands away from a loose ball (that was being chased by Ray Allen and Miami’s Udonis Haslem) as it goes out of bounds during Game 5 Tuesday night.

To watch an NBA playoff game is to witness a group of players in various degrees of hurt, held together by reams of tape and maintained by the most advanced treatments in professional sports.

If someone isn’t hurt, or is just mildly agitated, then he probably hasn’t played much. And some players deal with those physical limitations better than others. Some, like Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, have simply learned to navigate the pain better.

The performances of both Celtics have been wildly uneven because of the nightly attempt to rise above hindrances — in Pierce’s case a sprained left knee, and for Allen a right ankle that is gradually turning to sawdust, and will probably need surgery this summer.

But the Celtics are one win away from their third NBA Finals appearance in five years, and never was the endurance of both players more apparent than during the Game 5 win over Miami Tuesday night in the Eastern Conference finals.

Pierce got off to a horrid 2-for-11 start, ultimately needed 19 shots to score 19 points, but in the game’s biggest moment calmly created just enough space between himself and LeBron James to seize the night with one of the most memorable 3-pointers of his career.

Allen, even his free throw shooting affected by an inability to get comfortable on his feet, began Tuesday shooting 40 percent from the floor (56-for-140) and the worst playoff free throw percentage of his career (19-for-31, 61.3).

But he followed up Pierce’s bomb with his seventh and eighth free throws for a perfect 8-for-8 performance. Allen, who hadn’t even attempted a foul shot since Game 2, later said his free throw form — one of the most precise in NBA history — had returned. That doesn’t mean the pain is gone. Allen went to the locker room for treatment late in the third quarter, and nearly didn’t return.

After 18 playoff games, it appears both players have found a way to simply co-exist with their injuries.

“Yeah, I would say it’s probably 100 percent of that, especially in Ray’s case,” Rivers said. “I think Paul has improved. No different. He still has a sprained MCL. But I do think he has some improvement. He feels better. He’s not in as much pain.

“I think in Ray’s case it’s more he has just kind of resigned to the fact that this is what he has to play with,” added the Celtics coach. “He has figured out how to move and cut on it. He’s clearly (shown) that certain cuts hurt him. We’ve kind of taken him away from those cuts. He’s communicated all the things that he can’t do and can do. It’s helpful.”

It’s also a matter of resigning oneself to living with the pain.

Pierce, who said he doesn’t plan to have surgery, sounded weary when he said, “It’s going to be what it is. It’s not going to get better until I’m completely done with the season. I have no complaints about it. I’m at peace with it. I don’t even think about it when I’m out there. You turn it a little bit and you don’t think about your injuries. You just go out there and play. You let the rest take over. Whatever happens, happens.

“It’s a mindset. You go out and play,” he said. “You tweak it and you think about it a little more, but it’s just a mindset to just play and not worry about that other stuff.”

But Allen worried, plenty. Few athletes rely more on precision and repetition, and his entire routine has been rocked. So he arrived ahead of the team for both shootarounds and games, and worked on trying to put the lift back in his shooting. The Celtics guard watched reams of video in an attempt to determine how his creaky right ankle has disrupted his motion, both on jump shots and at the free throw line.

The video was especially helpful. Allen believes he finally identified the flaw in his technique.

“I do have to say that my ankle contributed to it, because when I shoot free throws I’m a lift off my feet shooter,” he said. “I was watching film and that’s what I wasn’t doing. I wasn’t lifting and pushing through it, and I started shooting and trying to get it out of my hands.

“It was perplexing because I didn’t know what it was I wasn’t doing. I (hadn’t been to the free throw line since Game 2), (and) I shot so many free throws on my down time in between, and I figured out what it was. Then I was able to get into the game and knock them down.”

Rivers talked of how much Allen, especially in his jump shot, had strayed from continuity. The Celtics coach singled out the irregularity in Allen’s landings, in particular — the fact that the guard was suddenly “all over the place” in his drop zone.

Allen’s textbook release — the fact that he can curl off a pick and get off his shot as quickly as anyone in the history of the game — had also suffered.

But these elements, too, appear to be returning to form.

“I think his balance is better now,” Rivers said. “I think he’s back to getting it off quick again, where I thought for at least in the Philly series, especially, it took so long for him to get it off. To me that’s a signal that something is not right.”

The signals, though, may now be changing for both players, even if the discomfort isn’t.

“Those are iron men. They’re tough,” said guard Keyon Dooling. “There’s a reason why they’re Hall of Famers, there’s a reason why we’re multi-time All-Stars. There’s a reason why they have so much success in these games. The mental capacity of those guys, the mental toughness, the will, the dedication to the game of those guys is phenomenal.”